Thanks, no hurry on the other question. I appreciate you want to put some time into it.

With regard to the bring-backs, you mention a group of ten or twelve people. I know some of the folks here have great knowledge of how Estes functions but I don't think most of us do.

Could you explain a bit about how big the company is in Penrose and give a general description of how the place works? I'm really curious as to how the group to decide such a thing as bring-backs would be put together and the kinds of jobs people do who were involved. To be honest, the only people I can think of there with enough historical knowledge of the company's kits would be you and Mary R., but I really don't know that much about the workings of the company.

Gus - as to the inner workings of Estes, I really can't comment other than we opertae like most other companies that offer consumer products. New product ideas are created by the R&D department which are then presented to the marketing staff. Many times new products are requested to be designed and built by the marketing people to be presented to a new account. If a product is selected or approved to be added to the product line, the process begins to do the necessary specifications such as laser-cuts, the instruction writing begins and the visual graphics people begin the packaging art. Schedules are created and parts are ordered. This is admitadly a cropped version but that's essentially how we do things.

While it is true Mary and I are the only individuals remaining with any overall history of the company and the kits themselves, but we a team as a company. Mary and I created the master list of what we thought would make the best Classic kits. We then went through our selections with marketing and the boss, and made the final selections. The specifications for the parts were created, and we began the process of producing them. If the HR-4040 nuke hadn't fallen on us most of the kits would be available right now.

mike was the gyroc kit ever given any thought as to a classic bring back? Maybe the engine deploying at apogee is no longer considered ok in this day and age. As i recall someone is currently producing the gyroc.

Mary and I created the master list of what we thought would make the best Classic kits. We then went through our selections with marketing and the boss, and made the final selections.

Hi Mike,

First of all, I wanted to say I think it's great that you are taking all the questions everyone has wanted to ask for years. Your answers and general information have been educational and entertaining. I also wanted to say Verna & I have had a great deal of enjoyment and fun with what I now understand to be your work.

Having said that please understand that I don't mean for this to sound critical, if it does I apologize in advance, but to be honest, while I may have missed something, I was a little surprised a few months back when the original announcement was made about the first batch of classic kits and there were no major NASA vehicles among them, i.e. Titan III, Atlas, Saturn V, etc. I realize the term "classic" mainly means "Estes classic" not necessarily NASA, but it's hard to imagine a classic rockets list without a NASA vehicle.

Was that because the classic kits were scheduled to be released on paper in more than one batch? If so, why more than one? Why not just announce them all at once?

If you can't say which ones, can you tell us the number of NASA vehicles that will be among the classic kits other than the Saturn V? BTW, glad to hear it will be improved over the 2157 kit.